ITS JPO Newsletter April 2012

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you are enjoying a productive start to 2012. Looking back over the past year, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has made significant progress on our intelligent transportation system (ITS) research initiatives. This newsletter highlights several of those initiatives, such as the Connected Vehicle Safety Pilot program and the Dynamic Mobility Applications (DMA) program, among others. Going forward, our progress from these initiatives will provide the critical research insights for our other programs and help us to achieve the next steps to realizing our program goals.

Best wishes, Shelley Row

Connected Vehicle Safety Pilot Program

Working with the Crash Avoidance Metrics Partnership, a research consortium consisting of nine original equipment manufacturers, the U.S. DOT successfully conducted the Safety Pilot Driver Clinics to assess user acceptance of connected vehicle technology. An initial 24 cars were built for and tested during the clinics, which were held in Brooklyn, Michigan; Brainerd, Minnesota; Orlando, Florida; Blacksburg, Virginia; Ft. Worth, Texas; and Alameda, California. A total of 690 everyday drivers participated in the clinics, generating over 20,000 miles of performance data. The program is analyzing the results of the clinics through May 2012. The program also plans to conduct two driver clinics for trucks that are integrated with wireless crash warning devices. The truck driver clinics will include a cross-section of commercial vehicle drivers in two locations in the United States.

For the second part of this program, the Safety Pilot Model Deployment, the U.S. DOT expects to haveup to 3,000 vehicles for testing. The model deployment will test connected vehicle safety applications in real-world driving scenarios to determine their effectiveness at reducing crashes and to ensure that devices are safe and do not unnecessarily distract motorists or cause unintended consequences. The data generated from both the driver clinics and model deployment will be critical to supporting the 2013 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration decision regarding connected vehicle communications for safety.

Learn more about Safety Pilot.

690 everyday drivers participated in the driver clinics, generating over 20,000 miles of performance data

DMA Program

Last year, the U.S. DOT selected mobility applications for additional development by the DMA program. From dozens of application concepts submitted by the community, the DMA program selected 30 high-priority applications and grouped them into 7 logical bundles. These bundles seek to leverage new forms of mobile data to realize transformative improvements in arterial, freeway, transit, and freight and incident management. The program awarded six procurements to further develop these concepts using a systems engineering approach by the summer of 2012. From there, the program will decide which applications should move forward into development with federal funding. In addition to identifying the high-value applications for research, this program will also develop the tools, metrics, and concepts that form the foundation for future application development.

Details of the mobility applications concepts and future development plans will be a focus of an upcoming Mobility Workshop 2012, to be held at the conclusion of the ITS America Annual Meeting on May 24, 2012 in the Washington DC area. To see the notice for the DMA Public meeting visit http://www.its.dot.gov/meetings/dma_meeting.htm

Qualified Products Listing (QPL)

Testing is currently underway to determine the products that meet the U.S. DOT’s acceptance criteria for vehicle awareness devices for the Safety Pilot Model Deployment. Installed in a vehicle after production, these devices have no connection to vehicle systems and do not generate warnings to drivers—they are capable of sending only the basic safety message over a DSRC wireless communications link.

Product testing for the vehicle awareness devices began on February 20, 2012, and will continue through March 2, 2012. The U.S. DOT will then begin evaluating the results of the tests. In addition to other factors such as cost and timing, the tests will help to determine whether the products are qualified for use during the model deployment. For those products that qualify, the vendors will be placed on the QPL for consideration for the model deployment. Specifications for the Vehicle Awareness Devices.

Basic Safety Message (BSM)

The U.S. DOT is developing a white paper that presents the results of a preliminary assessment of the information that needs to flow to and from vehicles to support the 30 high priority applications identified by the DMA program. One of the principal goals of the assessment was to determine the extent to which the information found in the BSM is sufficient to enable the set of mobility applications. A simplified model data flow was used to examine the information exchange needs. The model included three types of systems—roadside infrastructure (such as traffic signal controllers), other infrastructure (such as traffic management centers), and vehicles. Vehicles were further identified by type—light vehicle, transit vehicle, freight vehicle, emergency vehicle, and maintenance vehicle.

As noted earlier, the concepts of operation and system requirements for the DMA applications are still under development. As a result, the paper’s findings will likely change as more information becomes available. The document will be periodically updated through mid-2013.

To see a recent report on the about how the Basic Safety Message can be used for mobility please visit BSM Report.

At the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, we are committed to providing information and engaging new and existing stakeholders throughout the research process. If you have questions about our programs, please contact Mike Pina at mike.pina@dot.gov. Thank you for your interest in the DOT’s ITS program.